NAT'L, OSHA TEAM UP TO IMPROVE WORKPLACE SAFETY THROUGH 'CHALLENGE'

National Field Services is committed to maintaining the highest standards of workplace safety, and now is a proud participant in the OSHA Challenge, a three-stage process to implement an effective system to prevent fatalities, injuries and illness. Throughout this program, NFS management and employees will report its occupational injury and illness data and notification of stage completion information to its Challenge Administrator, Gulf Coast Safety Institute. Graduates of the OSHA Challenge receive recognition from OSHA as they incrementally improve their safety and health management systems.

The OSHA Challenge is open to General Industry and Construction employers in both private and public sectors under OSHA's federal jurisdiction. Participants must be interested in and committed to improving their safety and health management systems and ultimately applying for Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) Star Status. VPP is an OSHA cooperative program in which management, labor, and OSHA work cooperatively and proactively to prevent fatalities, injuries, and illnesses through a system focused on: hazard prevention and control; worksite analysis; training; and management commitment and worker involvement. VPP participants are re-evaluated every three to five years to remain in the programs, and are exempt from OSHA programmed inspections while they maintain their VPP status.

National Switchgear, NFS’ sister company, has also been accepted into the OSHA Challenge. The leadership team of both companies will work to ensure that Health and Safety goals are clear, attainable, measurable and relevant to bringing about a safe and healthy work environment. They will work to ensure that all policies and procedures developed to achieve these goals and objectives are based on outcomes of baseline and trend analysis.

To that end, they have established the following goals and objectives:

Short-Term Goals:

Conduct two automobile safety training classes in 2012 - 2013.
Have zero OSHA recordables in 2012 - 2013.
Deliver a minimum of eight hours safety training to every employee in 2012 - 2013.
Complete Stage 1 of the OSHA Challenge by December 31, 2012.
Perform monthly safety audits in every department by December 31, 2012.

Long-Term (Three Year) Goals:

Reduce our number of incidents from 17 in 2009 - 2011 by 50% (to less than 9 in 2013 - 2015).
Reduce Total Case Incident rate (TCIR) from 1.19 in 2009 - 2011 to .54 in 2012 - 2015.
Reduce our EMR from .81 to .7 by 2014.
Complete all three stages of the OSHA Challenge by Dec 31, 2014.
Upon completion of Stage 3, be in position to apply for VPP Star.

According to the OSHA Office of Partnerships and Recognition, there are currently 206 companies participating in the OSHA Challenge (as of July 31). To date, 54 companies have graduated (completed Stage 3), and the program has impacted 123, 164 workers—23,057 in Construction and 100,107 in General Industry.

For more information about the OSHA Challenge, click here.